Stereoscopic display device with changeable barrier pattern

ABSTRACT

A stereoscopic display device with changeable barrier patterns includes a display panel and a parallax barrier device. The parallax barrier device is disposed on the display panel. The parallax barrier device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a liquid crystal layer, and a plurality of barrier pixels. The first substrate and the second substrate are disposed oppositely to each other, and the first substrate is disposed between the display panel and the second substrate. The liquid crystal layer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. Each of the barrier pixels includes at least one switch device for independently controlling each of the barrier pixels to generate a changeable barrier pattern.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a stereoscopic display device with a changeable barrier pattern, and more particularly, to a stereoscopic display device, which has switch devices for independently controlling each barrier pixels to generate the changeable barrier pattern.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In general, the stereoscopic display technologies could be substantially divided into two major types, which are the glasses type and the naked-eye type. The barrier stereoscopic display technology is one of the naked-eye stereoscopic display technologies.

In the barrier stereoscopic display technology, stripe barrier patterns are disposed above a general display panel, and one eye of a viewer may receive images different from those received by another eye of the viewer. The different images received respectively by two eyes of the viewer may be integrated in the viewer's brain to generate stereoscopic display effect.

In the conventional barrier stereoscopic display device, the barrier pattern is fixed on the display panel, and it is unable to switch between the stereoscopic display mode and the two-dimensional display mode. In recent years, the switchable barrier stereoscopic display device has been developed. In the switchable barrier stereoscopic display device, the barrier pattern may be vanished under the two-dimensional display mode. However, in the switchable barrier stereoscopic display device, a passive barrier display device is generally disposed above a display panel. The passive barrier display device can only simply generate predetermined stripe barrier patterns for stereoscopic display purpose, or generate no barrier patterns for two-dimensional display purpose. Therefore, in the conventional barrier stereoscopic display device, the barrier patterns are not freely adjustable. According to the conventional barrier stereoscopic display device, the viewer may not receive the stereoscopic display effect in different viewing directions, and the viewer may not receive the stereoscopic display effect while the stereoscopic display device has to be rotated for special purposes. In addition, when the stereoscopic display effect and the two-dimensional display effect have to be presented simultaneously on the same screen, the display quality of the conventional barrier stereoscopic display device may become poor because of its predetermined stripe barrier patterns.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic display device with a changeable barrier pattern for improving the viewing direction problem and the display performance of the stereoscopic display device.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a stereoscopic display device includes a display panel and a parallax barrier device. The parallax barrier device is disposed on the display panel for providing a changeable barrier pattern. The parallax barrier device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a liquid crystal layer, and a plurality of barrier pixels. The first substrate and the second substrate are disposed oppositely to each other. The first substrate is disposed between the second substrate and the display panel. The liquid crystal layer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. Each of the barrier pixels includes at least one switch device for independently controlling each of the barrier pixels to generate the changeable barrier pattern.

In the present invention, the parallax barrier device is disposed in front of the display panel. The stereoscopic display device in this invention may present the stereoscopic display effect under different rotated conditions, because the parallax barrier device may generate barrier patterns stretching in different directions. Additionally, the parallax barrier device may generate barrier patterns in only some areas, and the partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display effect may be easily achieved.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a cross-sectional view of the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a three-dimensional view of the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 4-6 are schematic diagrams illustrating the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern under different rotated display modes according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern under a partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display mode according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claims to refer to particular components. As one skilled in the art will understand, electronic equipment manufacturers may refer to a component by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following description and in the claims, the terms “include” and “include” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “include, but not limited to . . . .” In addition, to simplify the descriptions and make it more convenient to compare between each embodiment, identical components are marked with the same reference numerals in each of the following embodiments. Please note that the figures are only for illustration and the figures may not be to scale. Additionally, the terms such as “first” and “second” in this context are only used to distinguish different components and do not constrain the order of generation.

Please refer to FIGS. 1-3. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a cross-sectional view of the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern, and FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a three-dimensional view of the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern. As shown in FIG. 1, the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern 10 in the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a display panel 101 and a parallax barrier device 102. The parallax barrier device 102 is disposed on the display panel 101. In the present invention, the display panel 101 may include a liquid crystal display panel, a plasma display panel, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display panel, or other appropriate display panel. As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the parallax barrier device 102 includes a first substrate 11, a second substrate 12, a liquid crystal layer 13, a polarizing film 14, and a plurality of barrier pixels P. The first substrate 11 and the second substrate 12 are disposed oppositely to each other. The first substrate 11 is disposed between the second substrate 12 and the display panel 101. The liquid crystal layer 13 is disposed between the first substrate 11 and the second substrate 12. The polarizing film 14 is disposed on an outer surface of the second substrate 12 opposite to the first substrate 11. Each of the barrier pixels P includes at least one switch device T for independently controlling each of the barrier pixels P to generate a changeable barrier pattern BP. In this embodiment, the first substrate 11 may include an array substrate or other appropriate substrate, and the switch device T may include a thin film transistor or other appropriate switch devices for controlling each of the barrier pixels P to generate the changeable barrier pattern BP. Additionally, the changeable barrier pattern BP includes a plurality of stripe barrier patterns S in this embodiment, but the changeable barrier pattern BP is not limited to this and may include other appropriate barrier patterns. According to the display combination of each of the barrier pixels P, the stripe barrier patterns S stretching in different directions may be generated. The stripe barrier patterns S are changeable when viewers have to receive stereoscopic display effects in different viewing directions or the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern 10 has to be rotated for different purposes. Additionally, in the present invention, the stripe barrier patterns S may be generated only on a part of the parallax barrier device 102, according to controlling each of the barrier pixels P by the switch device T, and then the partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display effect may be achieved.

Please refer to FIGS. 4-6. FIGS. 4-6 are schematic diagrams illustrating the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern under different rotated display modes according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern under a horizontal stereoscopic display mode. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern under a vertical stereoscopic display mode. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern under an oblique stereoscopic display mode. As shown in FIGS. 4-6, the display panel 101 has a long axis A and a short axis B. The long axis A is substantially perpendicular to the short axis B. A changeable included angle C is formed between the stripe barrier patterns S and the long axis A. In this embodiment, the changeable included angle C is substantially between 0 degree and 90 degrees, and the stripe barrier patterns S are substantially perpendicular to a connecting line E between two eyes of a viewer. For example, under the horizontal stereoscopic display mode, as shown in FIG. 4, the long axis A of the display panel 101 is substantially perpendicular to the stripe barrier patterns S, i.e. the changeable included angle C is substantially 90 degrees. Under the vertical stereoscopic display mode, as shown in FIG. 5, the long axis A of the display panel 101 is substantially parallel to the stripe barrier patterns S. Under the oblique stereoscopic display mode, as shown in FIG. 6, the changeable included angle C is substantially larger than 0 degree and less than 90 degrees, and the stripe barrier patterns S are not parallel or perpendicular to the long axis A or the short axis B. It is worthy of note that, as described above, the conditions of the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern under different rotated display modes are based on a fixed connecting line E between the two eyes of the viewer, i.e. the stripe barrier patterns S have to be substantially perpendicular to the connecting line E between the two eyes of the viewer for properly generating the stereoscopic display effect. In other words, the conditions of the different rotated display modes with the fixed connecting line E may be interchanged with the conditions of a fixed stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern 10 with a rotated connecting line E. Specifically, no matter how the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern 10 is rotated or how the connecting line E between the two eyes of the viewer is rotated, the barrier stereoscopic display effect may be properly generated by keeping the stripe barrier patterns S of the parallax barrier device 102 perpendicular to the connecting line E between the two eyes of the viewer.

In the present invention, the changeable barrier pattern BP is generated by the parallax barrier device 102, and the stripe barrier patterns S may be generated only on a part of the parallax barrier device 102 by controlling each of the barrier pixels P of the parallax barrier device 102. Therefore, in the stereoscopic display device with changeable barrier pattern in this invention, a partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display mode may be achieved. Please refer to FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern under the partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display mode according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, under the partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display mode, the display panel 101 includes at least one stereoscopic region 101A and at least one two-dimensional region 101B. The stereoscopic region 101A is a region for providing the stereoscopic display images, and a barrier region 102A of the parallax barrier device 102 corresponds to the stereoscopic region 101A. The barrier region 102A of the parallax barrier device 102 includes a plurality of stripe barrier patterns S for providing the barrier stereoscopic effect. The two-dimensional region 101B is a region for providing the two-dimensional display images, and a transparent region 102B of the parallax barrier device 102 corresponds to the two-dimensional region 101B. The transparent region 102B is clear with no barrier patterns for providing the normal two-dimensional display effect in this region. Therefore, the stereoscopic display effect is generated by combining the stereoscopic region 101A with the barrier region 102A, and the two-dimensional display effect is generated by combining the two-dimensional region 101B with the transparent region 102B. It is worth noting that under the barrier stereoscopic display mode, a display luminance received by the viewer may be reduced by the barrier patterns, and under the partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display mode, the luminance uniformity between a stereoscopic display region and a two-dimensional display region may be a problem. In this embodiment, a luminance of the two-dimensional display region, which includes the two-dimensional region 101B and the transparent region 102B, may be adjusted to be substantially close to a luminance of the stereoscopic display region, which includes the stereoscopic region 101A and the barrier region 102A, for improving the luminance uniformity problem under the partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display mode. In other words, an integrated display luminance of the barrier region 102A and the stereoscopic region 101A is substantially equal to an integrated display luminance of the transparent region 102B and the two-dimensional region 101B, but the present invention is not limited to this. More specifically, in the present invention, a luminance of the two-dimensional region 101B of the display panel 101 may be adjusted by such as a local dimming technique in a back light source of the display panel 101 to improving the luminance uniformity between the stereoscopic display region and the two-dimensional display region. For instance, the luminance of the two-dimensional region 101B of the display panel 101 may be adjusted to be lower than the luminance of the stereoscopic region 101A of the display panel 101, and the integrated display luminance of the barrier region 102A and the stereoscopic region 101A may then be substantially equal to the integrated display luminance of the transparent region 102B and the two-dimensional region 101B. In addition, a transmittance of the transparent region 102B of the parallax barrier device 102 may be adjusted to be substantially equal to a transmittance of the barrier region 102A of the parallax barrier device 102, because a gray level effect may be generated locally in the parallax barrier device 102, and the luminance uniformity between the stereoscopic display region and the two-dimensional display region may be effectively improved. In addition, in the present invention, the parallax barrier device 102 may be totally clear with no barrier patterns for providing a complete two-dimensional display effect.

To summarize all the descriptions above, in the present invention, the parallax barrier device is disposed in front of the display panel to generate the naked-eye stereoscopic display effect. With the stripe barrier patterns, which stretch in different directions, generated by the parallax barrier device, the stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern in the present invention may present the stereoscopic display effect under different rotated conditions of both the stereoscopic display device and the viewing direction. In addition, the partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display mode may be achieved by the stripe barrier patterns generated in only some areas of the parallax barrier device, and the luminance uniformity under the partial stereoscopic and partial two-dimensional display mode may be effectively improved by controlling the luminance of the two-dimensional display region.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. 

1. A stereoscopic display device with a changeable barrier pattern, comprising: a display panel; and a parallax barrier device, disposed on the display panel, for providing a changeable barrier pattern, wherein the parallax barrier device comprises: a first substrate; a second substrate, disposed oppositely to the first substrate, wherein the first substrate is disposed between the second substrate and the display panel; a liquid crystal layer, disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate; and a plurality of barrier pixels, wherein each of the barrier pixels comprises at least one switch device for independently controlling each of the barrier pixels to generate the changeable barrier pattern.
 2. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 1, wherein the parallax barrier device further comprises a polarizing film disposed on the second substrate.
 3. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 1, wherein the changeable barrier pattern comprises a plurality of stripe barrier patterns.
 4. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 3, wherein the display panel has a long axis and a short axis, the long axis is perpendicular to the short axis, and a changeable included angle is formed between the stripe barrier patterns and the long axis.
 5. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 4, wherein the changeable included angle is between 0 degree and 90 degrees, and the stripe barrier patterns are perpendicular to a connecting line between two eyes of a viewer.
 6. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 5, wherein under a horizontal stereoscopic display mode, the long axis of the display panel is perpendicular to the stripe barrier patterns.
 7. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 5, wherein under a vertical stereoscopic display mode, the long axis of the display panel is parallel to the stripe barrier patterns.
 8. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 5, wherein under an oblique stereoscopic display mode, the changeable included angle is larger than 0 degree and less than 90 degrees.
 9. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 1, wherein under a partial stereoscopic display mode, the parallax barrier device further comprises at least one barrier region and at least one transparent region.
 10. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 9, wherein the display panel further comprises at least one stereoscopic region corresponding to the barrier region, and at least one two-dimensional region corresponding to the transparent region.
 11. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 10, wherein an integrated display luminance of the barrier region and the stereoscopic region is equal to an integrated display luminance of the transparent region and the two-dimensional region.
 12. The stereoscopic display device with the changeable barrier pattern of claim 11, wherein a luminance of the two-dimensional region of the display panel is lower than a luminance of the stereoscopic region of the display panel. 